Jack Dorsey fulfills its promise: Bitcoin would one day be at the heart of everyday payment and commerce.
That day has arrived. November 10, 2025, Square — subsidiary of Block (formerly Square Inc.) — announced the official launch of Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, directly from its terminals.
This innovation now allows millions of merchants to accept Bitcoin like any other contactless payment, simply by scanning a QR code.
The gesture may seem trivial. Yet it is historic. For the first time, a traditional payment giant is using Bitcoin a native and fluid option in physical retail. Not a gimmick. Not a plugin. But a seamless integration, designed to last.
A concrete and ambitious launch
The official press release, published on the Square website, details the deployment: American merchants can now activate the option “Accept Bitcoin” in their Square app.
Transactions are completed in an instant thanks to the Lightning Network, and above all — they are exempt from processing fees to 2027.
A strong strategic decision, at a time when merchants still pay between 2 and 3% commission on each card transaction.
Better yet, Square is introducing a new feature called “Convert Sales Into Bitcoin”, which allows any merchant to automatically convert part of their sales into BTC.
Up to 50% of daily revenue can be reinvested in Bitcoin, without any effort or technical knowledge. A simple gesture, but one with immense symbolism: for the first time, a company can accumulate Bitcoin through sales, just as it would a reserve fund.
Jack Dorsey’s “Bitcoin First” vision
Since leaving Twitter, Dorsey has never stopped defending a radical idea: Bitcoin is not a speculative asset, it is the monetary protocol of the future.
Under his leadership, Block has built a veritable ecosystem around this belief. There are Cash App, which democratizes the purchase of Bitcoin in the United States; bitkey, an open-source hardware wallet for self-custody; and Spiral, a research laboratory dedicated to the development of the Lightning Network.
Square completes this puzzle: the “payment” brick, the link between the digital world and the real world.
“Bitcoin doesn’t need permission to work, it just needs to be used,” Dorsey said recently.
With Square, he's not just talking about it anymore. He's creating the infrastructure that makes it possible.
How does it work, in practice?
In practice, the process is disconcertingly simple.
The merchant enables the Bitcoin option in their Square dashboard. When a customer chooses to pay in BTC, a Lightning QR code appears on the terminal screen. The customer scans it from their wallet (Cash App, Wallet of Satoshi, Muun, Phoenix, etc.), and the transaction is validated in a fraction of a second.
The merchant can then decide whether to keep the bitcoins received, or immediately convert them into dollars.
Everything takes place within the same ecosystem, with no banking intervention, no additional hardware, and no intermediaries. The experience is seamless. Invisible, even. And that's precisely what makes it so powerful.
Bitcoin finally enters the coffers
Until now, Bitcoin has remained confined to the world of applications and online exchanges.
Square's initiative is a game-changer. It returns Bitcoin to what it was always intended to be: a currency, a peer-to-peer payment tool, usable in everyday life.
For merchants, the appeal is obvious. Bitcoin payments via Lightning cost next to nothing, settle instantly, and involve no central authority.
But beyond the numbers, it is a new philosophy of commerce which is emerging: that of a direct, free exchange between customer and seller. An economy without friction, without authorization, without financial intermediaries.
Limits… but immense potential
The launch remains for now reserved for the United States, with the notable exception of New York State, which is still blocked by regulatory constraints.
Square also points out that Bitcoin payments are subject to the same risks as any cryptocurrency holding: volatility, irreversibility, and uncertain taxation.
But despite these limitations, the challenge extends beyond the US. What Square is testing today in its domestic market could be adopted tomorrow by other fintechs in Europe, Latin America, or Africa—regions where Bitcoin addresses real monetary needs: inflation, capital controls, and banking exclusion.
A giant step for the Lightning Network
Square's choice to use the Lightning Network is not trivial.
This protocol, often presented as the “second layer” of Bitcoin, allows tiny amounts to be sent in a flash, for minimal fees.
By integrating Lightning into a network of millions of merchants, Square is offering the protocol a new testing ground: that of mass commerce.
Every coffee paid for in BTC, every transaction in store becomes living proof of the network's viability.
This is a quiet, but decisive, victory for the widespread adoption of Bitcoin.
A lesson to the industry: adoption is built, not decreed
While many “crypto” companies are multiplying tokens, promises of returns or aborted metaverses, Jack Dorsey is following another path: the slow, patient, rigorous one.
It builds, brick by brick, an ecosystem that respects the fundamental values of Bitcoin: sovereignty, transparency, decentralization.
And this consistency is starting to bear fruit.
This launch is not a marketing announcement. It is a functional infrastructure, already deployed, already used.
Tangible proof that Bitcoin is no longer a digital utopia, but a currency on the move.
Conclusion: the code enters reality
With this integration, Bitcoin reaches a symbolic milestone. It leaves platforms and order books to enter everyday life, in the till of the florist, baker, or local café.
Square doesn't talk about adoption: it implements it.
And Dorsey, true to his pioneering role, continues to write what history will perhaps remember as the biggest financial revolution since the invention of the bank card.
Bitcoin no longer needs promises. It has tools.
And starting this November 2025, it finally has terminals.
